How To Say I In Portuguese

Numbers in Portuguese: Counting in Portuguese from one-100+

If you want to learn how to count in Portuguese, you're in the right place. This article volition give y'all everything yous need for a complete agreement of Portuguese numbers.

I'll cover both central and ordinal numbers (that is, both "one, ii, iii…" and "first, 2nd, third…"), along with all the subtleties and irregularities that y'all need to know. My aim is to give you a comprehensive guide to Portuguese numbers then that, by the fourth dimension you're done, you won't have any questions left regarding numbers and counting in Portuguese.

Portuguese Numbers i-10

If you've simply started learning Portuguese, you don't need to acquire how to count to a million just yet.

And then permit'due south leave the huge numbers until later, and beginning with the basics. The first ten numbers in Portuguese are:

one – um/uma
2 – dois/duas
3 – três
4 – quatro
five – cinco
half-dozen – seis
seven – sete
eight – oito
9 – nove
10 – dez

Every bit you can run into "ane" (um/uma) and "two" (dois/duas) have two versions. These are the masculine and feminine forms of the number, and they need to concord with the gender of the thing that's being counted:

comprei um limão – "I bought one lemon"
tenho dois cachorros – "I have two dogs"
você pode me passar uma taça" – "Can you pass me one loving cup?"
te contei duas vezes já – "I already told you two times"

Annotation that um/uma tin can mean "a" also equally "one". Portuguese doesn't distinguish between these 2 words like English language does. So, for example, the first judgement to a higher place could also be translated as simply "I bought a lemon".

Portuguese Numbers 11-xix

Gear up for round two? Here's the side by side batch of Portuguese numbers you should learn:

11 – onze
12 – doze
xiii – treze
14 – catorze
15 – quinze
16 – dezesseis/dezasseis
17 – dezessete/dezassete
eighteen – dezoito
19 – dezenove/dezanove

Where I've written ii words for 1 number, information technology'due south because the first version is used in Brazil and the second is used in Portugal. So, for example, Brazilians say "dezesseis" while Portuguese people say "dezasseis".

To help you lot remember these, detect that the numbers 16 to nineteen are formed using the same, simple pattern. For instance "dezesseis" is just the combination of dez ("ten") and seis ("six"), with an east ("and") in the middle. The only thing y'all need to remember is that Portuguese people change the east to an a (don't ask me why), and that dezoito is a slight exception because it drops the due east entirely.

You may be wondering why dezesseis and dezessete have that extra s in the middle. Why isn't it dezeseis and dezesete? Well, information technology's because of the rules of Portugues spelling and pronunciation. An s is unremarkably pronounced similar the English language letter "s", but when it comes between two vowels it'south pronounced like an English "z". However, a double southward is always pronounced like an English "south". So if you just wrote dezesete, y'all'd exist changing the s in sete to sound like a z. By doubling it upward to dezessete, y'all make it articulate that the sete notwithstanding sounds the same as if it were a separate discussion.

Portuguese numbers 1-100

Once you've learned the first xix numbers in Portuguese, it'south like shooting fish in a barrel to acquire the next 80. All you need to do is remember the multiples of ten:

20 – vinte
thirty – trinta
twoscore – quarenta
50 – cinquenta
sixty – sessenta
70 – setenta
80 – oitenta
ninety – noventa

These aren't hard to acquire, particularly if yous notice that all of them from 40 upwards end in -enta, and all of them except vinte have an obvious human relationship with their root digit – e.g. "oito" and "oitenta".

Now, to say a number like 43, yous choice the right multiple of 10 (in this case quarenta), translate the number from the units column (in this example três), and join them together with an eastward – quarenta e três. Unlike with dezessete, you write this every bit three separate words – and Portuguese people don't change the e to an a.

This pattern is the same for all numbers between twenty and ninety-nine. So all yous need to know at present is that cem means "one hundred" – and you know how to count from i to 100 in Portuguese.

Check this table if you're not certain:

1 – um/uma	eleven – onze	21 – vinte eastward um/uma	31 – trinta east um/uma	41 – quarenta east um/uma	51 – cinquenta e um/uma	61 – sessenta e um/uma	71 – setenta eastward um/uma	81 – oitenta due east um/uma	91 – noventa east um/uma
ii – dois/duas	12 – doze	22 – vinte e dois/duas	32 – trinta due east dois/duas	42 – quarenta e dois/duas	52 – cinquenta eastward dois/duas	62 – sessenta e dois/duas	72 – setenta e dois/duas	82 – oitenta e dois/duas	92 – noventa e dois/duas
3 – três	13 – treze	23 – vinte e três	33 – trinta e três	43 – quarenta eastward três	53 – cinquenta eastward três	63 – sessenta e três	73 – setenta e três	83 – oitenta eastward três	93 – noventa e três
4 – quatro	fourteen – catorze	24 – vinte eastward quatro	34 – trinta east quatro	44 – quarenta eastward quatro	54 – cinquenta eastward quatro	64 – sessenta e quatro	74 – setenta due east quatro	84 – oitenta east quatro	94 – noventa e quatro
5 – cinco	15 – quinze	25 – vinte e cinco	35 – trinta e cinco	45 – quarenta e cinco	55 – cinquenta e cinco	65 – sessenta e cinco	75 – setenta e cinco	85 – oitenta e cinco	95 – noventa eastward cinco
6 – seis	16 – dezesseis/dezasseis	26 – vinte due east seis	36 – trinta e seis	46 – quarenta eastward seis	56 – cinquenta east seis	66 – sessenta e seis	76 – setenta eastward seis	86 – oitenta eastward seis	96 – noventa eastward seis
7 – sete	17 – dezassete/dezessete	27 – vinte e sete	37 – trinta e sete	47 – quarenta e sete	57 – cinquenta eastward sete	67 – sessenta east sete	77 – setenta east sete	87 – oitenta e sete	97 – noventa e sete
viii – oito	18 – dezoito	28 – vinte e oito	38 – trinta e oito	48 – quarenta e oito	58 – cinquenta e oito	68 – sessenta e oito	78 – setenta e oito	88 – oitenta e oito	98 – noventa e oito
9 – nove	nineteen – dezanove/dezenove	29 – vinte e nove	39 – trinta east nove	49 – quarenta due east nove	59 – cinquenta e nove	69 – sessenta e nove	79 – setenta e nove	89 – oitenta east nove	99 – noventa e nove
ten – dez	20 – vinte	thirty – trinta	forty – quarenta	50 – cinquenta	60 – sessenta	70 – setenta	80 – oitenta	ninety – noventa	100 – cem

Annotation that for all numbers which end in one or two, you lot need to use the correct form of um/uma or dois/duas:

Somos vinte e duas pessoas – "there are twenty-two of usa" (literally: "we're 20-two people)
Li trinta due east um livros esse ano já – "I've already read thirty-1 books this twelvemonth"

The number zero, by the mode, is zero. That ane'due south easy to recollect!

"Cem" vs "Cento" in Portuguese

I told yous that cem means "i-hundred", just this isn't the total story. Yous actually merely apply cem when you take exactly one-hundred of something. If another number comes after the cem, you should instead employ cento:

100 – cem
101 – cento eastward um/uma
138 – cento e trinta eastward oito

Make sense?

If precision doesn't matter, and you just want to say that you accept "hundreds" of something, use centenas:

Recebemos centenas de ligações – "Nosotros received hundreds of phone calls"

Numbers upwards to i,000 in Portuguese

Before, we learned the Portuguese words for the multiples of ten, which allowed us to say any number up to 1 hundred.

It'south time to level-upward. This fourth dimension, nosotros must acquire the Portuguese words for the multiples of 100. In one case we're done, we'll know how to say any number up to one grand!

The numbers 200, 300, etc. have masculine and feminine forms, pregnant they must hold with the noun they announced next to. Masculine forms cease in -bone and feminine forms in -as:

200 – duzentos/duzentas
300 – trezentos/trezentas
400 – quatrocentos/quatrocentas
500 – quinhentos/quinhentas
600 – seiscentos/seiscentas
700 – setecentos/setecentas
800 – oitocentos/oitocentas
900 – novecentos/novecentas

As you tin can see, these more often than not follow the design number + centos. E.g. nine-hundred is nove (nine) + centos/centas (hundreds). The only ones that don't follow this pattern exactly are duzentos, trezentos, and quinhentos, just they're not as well far off.

Separate the hundreds, units, and tens portion of whatsoever number with an eastward:

121 – cento e vinte east um
487 – quatrocentos e oitenta eastward sete
701 – setecentos e um
811 – oitocentos east onze
940 – novecentos eastward quarenta

Numbers Above yard in Portuguese

It's fourth dimension to bring out the big guns. Mil means "(1) chiliad" and um milhão means "one meg". Milhão becomes milhões in the plural, while mil doesn't alter. And then you'd say dois mil (two,000) but dois milhões (2,000,000).

You don't commonly need an e when linked hundreds and thousands, e.thou.:

one,234 – mil duzentos e quatro
2,058 – dois mil cincuenta e oito

However, yous do need to insert an due east if the number is an exact multiple of one hundred:

ane,200 – mil e duzentos
2,400 – dois mil e quatrocentos

Finally, y'all demand an e when linking thousands and units:

2,004 – dois mil e quatro
5,009 – cinco mil e nove

Also note that when using milhões, you don't have "a million things" (um milhão coisas), you have "a 1000000 of things": um milhão de coisas.

What near numbers above i million, similar a billion and a trillion? Unfortunately, this is where things start to get complicated.

Millions and Billions (Long vs Brusque Calibration Numbers) in Portuguese

You may know that "a billion" used to have a different meaning in British and American English language. To Americans, a "billion" meant "i thousand one thousand thousand", like it does today. In Britain and almost other English-speaking countries, a billion meant "one 1000000 1000000" – which today everyone (in the English-speaking world at least) calls a trillion.

Similarly, "a trillion" had its current significant in the U.Southward. of "1 million million". Everywhere else it meant "one 1000000 million meg" – that'southward a one with a whopping eighteen zeroes afterward.

At some point in the twentieth century, non-Americans gave up and started using "billion" and "trillion" in the American way. (We're still waiting for Americans to render the favour and terminate measuring temperature in Fahrenheit.) The "old" mode is chosen the long scale numbering system, while the modern/American way is called the short scale.

Yous may be wondering how any of this is relevant to Portuguese. Well, in many languages they still utilise the long scale system, in which a billion and a million (actually their cognates in the local language) accept twelve and xviii zeros, respectively. And then, for case, in Spanish a billón means 1,000,000,000,000.

Which one does Portuguese use? Well, now it gets even more confusing! Virtually Portuguese-speaking countries employ the long-scale system, with the exception of Brazil.

So um bilhão means "ane,000,000,000" in Brazil, only "1,000,000,000,000" in Portugal or Angola.

To add yet another complication, bilhão can alternatively exist spelled bilião. The erstwhile is more common in Brazil, while the latter is more than common in Portugal.

Fun fact: you lot know how in English we have "a zillion" as a humourous mode of saying "a very large number"? In Portuguese you can do the same matter with um zilhão.

Decimal Points and Commas in Portuguese Numbers

In English, we make long numbers more readable by putting a comma in between each grouping of iii digits: e.1000. ane one thousand thousand is written "1,000,000".

On the other hand, for fractional numbers, nosotros separate the integer part from the rest using a dot (the "decimal point"): e.g. 3.14159.

In Portuguese, however, every bit in nearly European languages, they do things the other way around. Big numbers are dissever up using dots, and partial numbers are written using a decimal comma – the vírgula da casa decimal:

A população practise Brasil eastward 208.494.900
O valor de pi é 3,1419

You lot could too employ spaces instead of dots to divide a large number, although this is less common:

A população do Brasil eastward 208 494 900

Vírgula means "comma", and a number similar "2,34" would exist read out loud as dois vírgula trinta due east quatro.

Names of Years in Portuguese.

In English, there are two ways to say "1999". If you're talking about the year, yous'd say "nineteen ninety-nine". In other cases where yous're simply referring to the number, you'd say "one thousand, ix-hundred and 90-nine".

In Portuguese, to say the same of the yr y'all just say the regular name of the number. So the year 1999 in Portuguese is mil novecentos, noventa e nove.

Ordinal Numbers in Portuguese

So far we've only looked at cardinal numbers – "one, two, 3", etc.

The other thing you demand to know virtually is the ordinal numbers – "first, 2nd, third", etc.. Here they are:

1st – primeiro
2nd – segundo
3rd – terceiro
4th – quarto
5th – quinto
sixth – sexto
7th – sétimo
eighth – oitavo
9th – nono
10th – décimo

These words function like regular adjectives, meaning they need to agree in gender and number with the word they refer to:

o primeiro homem – "the beginning man"
a segunda pessoa – "the 2nd person"
os terceiros países – "the third countries"
equally quartas maçãs – "the fourth apples"

You besides need to know the ordinal numbers for multiples of x:

20th – vigésimo
30th – trigésimo
40th – quadragésimo
50th – quinquagésimo
60th – sexagésimo
70th – septuagésimo
80th – octogésimo
90th – nonagésimo
100th – centésimo

Then you lot tin can combine these words to go other numbers:

11th – décimo primeiro
34th – trigésimo quarto

Simple! Nonetheless, when it comes to the bigger ordinal numbers, particularly ones that are non exact multiples of 10, people tend to avoid them in breezy speech, and instead employ a cardinal number:

Hoje foi o dia sessenta e sete da minha dieta – "Today was the 67th day (lit: twenty-four hour period 67) of my diet"

"Meia" in Brazilian Portuguese

Ane terminal thing is worth knowing. In Brazil (simply not so much in Portugal), y'all'll often hear people maxim the word meia when reading a list of numbers. This is an culling way of saying "six", and it comes from meia dúzia – "one-half dozen".

It's like how in English we often say "oh" instead of "zero", for case when reading out a phone number. Brazilians exercise the same, except they supervene upon seis with meia.

Benny Lewis

Founder, Fluent in iii Months

Fun-loving Irish guy, full-time world trotter and international bestselling writer. Benny believes the best approach to linguistic communication learning is to speak from day one.

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